Amidst the golden era of Rock-n-Roll during the mid-1960s, out of the United Kingdom came The Zombies, a unique band that took the international world by storm, like The Beatles, The Kinks, Dave Clark Five, among many others. Finding success with hits like 1964’s “She’s Not There” and 1965’s “Tell Her No,” The Zombies were, oddly, by late 1967, all but broken up. An unfortunate conclusion for a highly talented band, even more peculiar was that they released their album Odessey and Oracle in 1968, months after going their separate ways. Adding another wrinkle to the story, while Odessey and Oracle received little publicity at the time, the album’s final track, “Time of the Season,” came out of nowhere to top the charts in the United States in 1969.
A part of history that makes The Zombies that much more interesting, on top of everything, is that time has found them widely considered as an intricate part of Rock-n-Roll history, with Odessey and Oracle regarded by many as one of the best albums ever recorded. An accoloade which has followed them into the modern era, over the last decade alone The Zombies have released two albums (2015’s Still Got The Hunger and 2023’s Different Game), were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019, and were the subject of a fantastic 2023 documetary, Hung Up On A Dream: The Zombies Documentary, which received a theatrical release in 2025.
Truly an astounding story of how good music will find a way, at the front of The Zombies has been the unmistakable voice of Colin Blunstone. A talented, unique vocalist, Blunstone has remained active with The Zombies and as a solo artist, recently touring in 2024, performing much of his solo work, including the 1971 album One Year. Gracious to still be making music all these decades later, the soft-spoken Colin Blunstone sat down to reflect on the wild journey of The Zombies, the key to surviving as a musician, plus much more.
Cryptic Rock – Your music career has been fascinating. At this point, The Zombies are highly regarded as a vital part of Rock-n-Roll history and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2019. A long, windy road, how would you describe your journey in music?
Colin Blunstone – I never expected to have a lifetime career in music. In that respect, it’s been a wonderful surprise. It has at times been a fairly bumpy road. In the music business, like life, there are lots of ups and downs. You have to learn to survive the downs; it’s really important for a musician. You have to get over those not-so-successful years. You have to find a way to do that because it can be quite challenging.
Looking back, it’s been good. It’s been a wonderful adventure. I was going to say I wouldn’t change anything, but maybe I would change a few things if I got the chance. I started when I was just 18, and I’m 80 now. God, when I look back at it, it’s been a long time. There have been one or two traumatic moments, but for the most part, it’s been a wonderful experience.
Cryptic Rock – That’s very positive. Now, as you said, you have all these years to look back in hindsight. The Zombies have gotten the credit they deserve. They were put into the Rock and Hall of Fame about five or six years ago. Things are going really well. It’s exciting. How redeeming is that for you, after all this time, to see the credit you are getting?
Colin Blunstone – It’s incredible, isn’t it? Particularly, Odessey and Oracle is talked about in quite revered terms. It’s heartening to realize that what we were doing all those years ago did have some value, because it was rather ignored at the time. It wasn’t a commercial success, and it wasn’t really a critical success either. In later years, it has been acclaimed as an important piece of work. It has been wonderful to get that recognition after all this time.
The story of that album is very strange. It nearly wasn’t released in the first place. The record company wasn’t keen on it. Because of Al Kooper, who’d started Blood, Sweat, and Tears, at this particular time, he was a producer at CBS. He loved this album. It had been released in the UK. He pretty much forced Clive Davis and CBS to release this album. Otherwise, it would never have even been released.
He also chose the third single, which was “Time of the Season,” which went on to be a huge hit. There are so many chance things that happened, probably in everybody’s careers, but certainly in The Zombies. If Al Kooper hadn’t been so keen on this album, it probably would have never even been released. No one would have heard it.
As it was over a period of years, so many other people have spoken up on behalf of this album. In this country, Paul Weller has always said this is one of his favorite albums, if not his favorite album. Many people, like Dave Grohl and Susanna Hoff in the States, have said how much they like this album. No one’s been promoting. No one’s been marketing it. Gradually, through word of mouth, it sells far more now year on year than it ever sold when it first came out. Magazines like Rolling Stone have named it one of the top 100 albums of all time. Many other publications have said wonderful things about this album.
The sort of mystery of The Zombies goes on. Eventually, again, quite by chance, Rod Argent and I started playing together again in 1999 in a band that became the second incarnation of The Zombies. At the time when we got back together again, neither of us knew that there was an appetite for Zombies’ music. It had been such a long time. As we started playing, people kept asking for more Zombie tunes.
Over a period of years, we were playing a Zombie set, and the second incarnation of The Zombies was launched, which ended up with us being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn in 2019.
Cryptic Rock – It is really astounding to see the trajectory of everything happening. You never could have predicted this in your lifetime, what has happened with the band.
Colin Blunstone – No, because it’s been so up and down. With most bands, you’ll see a gradual line, how they get more and more successful. With us, it wasn’t like that. We started off with a worldwide big hit, “She’s Not There,” and then gradually slipped down the pole of success until not much was happening. About three years later, the band broke up.
Gradually, over a period of 40 years, The Zombies have reemerged. We’ve always thought of ourselves as an emerging Rock band. For us, it just took longer than it takes for most bands. It’s taken a lifetime.
Cryptic Rock – It is a very inspiring story. It is a story of art and how art always wins in the end. It will find an audience.
Colin Blunstone – It’s very interesting that you should say that. At the end of the day, it does. Also, maybe it’s a story of hope as well, and tenacity. If you’re an artist, you have to have a dream, stamina, and tenacity, because very rarely do people have overnight successes. You have to somehow trudge on over the peaks and troughs.
I hope our story does inspire people because it’s quite unusual. It’s a lifetime of commitment to music. In the end, I feel we were, to an extent, recognised. There was that fulfillment, that reward at the end of our careers, because The Zombies are not going to tour anymore. Rod was quite ill last year. He had a stroke, a little bit over a year ago now, and he’s decided not to tour anymore. Rod is going to keep writing and recording. Hopefully, there’ll be a new Zombies album. The touring side of The Zombies is definitely finished. It was wonderful. I loved every minute of it.
Cryptic Rock – You have been very active over the last 10 to 15 years, releasing three studio albums, which is exciting. The last one came out in 2023, Different Game. You could say the band’s second chapter has been more active than the first.
Colin Blunstone – It’s funny. It probably was. It certainly was longer, anyway, because the first band seemed as though we’d been together forever. We got together as teenagers in ’61, forming an amateur band. No one knows about that. We made our first record in ’64. For most people, we were only together for three years, ’64 to ’67. For us, we were together from ’61 to ’67. At the time, it seemed like quite a long career.
Looking back now and comparing it, it actually was quite a short career. This second incarnation of the band lasted 25 or 26 years, much longer. We were working constantly. This has been a great adventure. I’ve really enjoyed this second incarnation of the band because we had no idea where we were going. There was no master plan. We just knew we loved to play music. We made albums, got out there, and toured anywhere that would have us. Gradually, we built up a following again. It was really fulfilling to see this band grow over the years.
Cryptic Rock – Yes. In recent years, there has also been the fantastic Robert Schwartzman-directed documentary Hung Up on a Dream: The Zombies Documentary. The film offers real insight into the band and its members’ personalities. Did it allow you a chance to reflect on everything that had happened leading up to this point?
Colin Blunstone – It does. With a documentary, it’s very different when you see it in its completed form than when it’s coming together, because we were all interviewed separately. I felt I was having a conversation with Robert Schwartzman, who is a wonderful director. I had no sense of an overview of what he had in mind, how it was going to finish. There was a series of conversations with him. He found all these excellent clips. I had no idea that there were so many clips of the band that he found.
When I first saw the documentary, it really was a revelation. Very exciting. Quite emotional as well to see, for all of us. It’s not just about me. We saw our lives concertinaed into an hour and a half on a big screen. It’s a bit overwhelming when you first see it, to be absolutely honest. I’m really glad we did it. It tells the story of all the ups and downs, the successes, the disappointments, and shows us moving towards the induction ceremony at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which was just a magical experience.
Cryptic Rock – It has to be a very surreal feeling to see 60 or 70 years of your life, all this work, heartache, triumphs, and down spots all put on screen like that.
Colin Blunstone – It is. It’s very emotional, and it’s almost a bit overwhelming. Certainly, the first time. I’ve seen it quite a few times now. It’s still emotional, but it’s not quite as overwhelming as it was when I first saw it. It was a very strange experience seeing your life up there on a big screen. As I said, I’m glad we did it. Now the band’s career is documented forever.
If people are interested in the band, they’ll always be able to see the documentary and understand where we came from, our struggles, successes, how we developed as people, and how the band developed right up until 2024.
Cryptic Rock – Yeah. It’s great. The film came out great. It did a great job of capturing the band and each individual. Your story is fascinating in its own right. It shows how you went on and did solo material. You stepped away from music for a while and worked in insurance.
Colin Blunstone – People always think that you’re a millionaire when you’re in a band that has a hit record. At the end of The Zombies, the three non-writers, Paul Atkinson, Hugh Grundy, and I, had absolutely no money.
When the band finished, not only did I have no idea of what I was going to do, but I had no plan B. I had to get a job because I had absolutely no money. I took the first job I was offered. It was in a very busy office in the center of London. It could have been doing anything because I only knew music and being in a band. It happened to be an insurance office.
People often say, “You were selling insurance,” but I didn’t know anything about insurance, so I couldn’t sell it. I was helping people who were selling insurance. I was much lower down the totem pole than they were. It lasted for nearly a year. I didn’t choose insurance. I chose the first job that was offered to me. Then I managed to get back into the music business.
Cryptic Rock – Right, understood. It is hard to sell anything. It is sometimes hard to even sell yourself.
Colin Blunstone – When I walked into that office the first time, I didn’t know anything about insurance. At some point, I had a phone at my desk, and my phone rang. I can remember it now. I had to pick up the phone and answer the questions that the person was asking me. If there’s one good thing that comes out of being in the music business, it’s learning how to bluff. I put it to good use in my little insurance career. I had to bluff the best I could.
Cryptic Rock – (Laughs) That is an experience that you could talk about for the rest of your life. You also put out five solo tracks in 2024.
Colin Blunstone – Yeah. They were guitar and voice demos that I’d done some time ago. I played them by chance for my management company. I wanted to show them a song. I wasn’t talking about the performance. I just wanted to play them a song. They liked it so much. They said, “We should put this out on the internet.” I don’t think we’ve actually got a physical recording of these that you can buy, but you can stream it, download it, and stuff like that.
There are five demos that I wrote and recorded over the last few years. I’m really pleased. I like recording like that, just me and a guitar. Obviously, it’s a lot easier than getting a band together. The song is exposed if it’s just you and a guitar. It either works or it doesn’t. I really like it.
Cryptic Rock – Having heard the songs, they all sound outstanding. Hopefully, more comes of that. What is it like writing and performing your own songs outside the band?
Colin Blunstone – In America, I’ve never really had a lot of success as a solo artist. It doesn’t matter that there are other places where I’ve had quite a lot of success, so people would know that I write and I sing as a solo artist. It’s quite a different feeling. I’m not saying I don’t enjoy being in The Zombies, because I love that too. I’m working with really top musicians. More recently, Rod Argent was writing nearly all the songs. He’s a great songwriter, so I enjoy that. In a different way, I do really enjoy writing and recording my own songs as well.
I’m just at the beginning of a new album now. It could be that I will write the whole album. It’s very early days, but it’s looking a bit that way at the moment. That’s really good. When Rod and I got together, and we started the second incarnation of The Zombies, both Rod and I had solo careers as well as being in The Zombies. We started the band, the second incarnation, not playing very much Zombies material, but concentrating on our solo material.
It hasn’t been so successful in the States. It happens. I’ve been particularly successful in Holland, for instance, but I haven’t been particularly successful in Belgium, which is right next door to it. You can put the same song out, and it will be a big hit in one country and not in the other. I’ve been quite successful in the UK, but I’ve never had a solo hit song in America. I don’t know why this happens. It’s just life.
Cryptic Rock – It is fascinating how things happen sometimes. There is no rhyme or reason to it.
Colin Blunstone – It’s not just me either, it’s all artists. If a song is a hit in your country, or my country, or someone else’s country, you think that it’s a hit all around the world, but it’s not necessarily. When you’re touring, it really pays dividends to find out what your successful records were in that territory. Otherwise, you might turn up and play to that audience really obscure tracks, and they don’t know any of them. If you’d have made some inquiries, you don’t have to play all hits, but people like to hear songs they’re familiar with. You needed to make inquiries to find out what your successful songs are.
I do try to do that when I go to another country now. I try to get from the promoter what audiences are familiar with. I try to include those in the programming of the set.
Cryptic Rock – Absolutely. You have to figure out what each audience knows and loves. You talk about performing live solo. On November 21, 2025, you released One Year And More: Live from Union, a 2024 live recording. This is available as a DVD, a CD, or a lovely limited-edition box set.
Colin Blunstone – Absolutely. It’s the last night of a solo tour that I did nearly a year ago. From memory, it was November last year, 2024, at the Union Chapel in London. It’s a wonderful venue. It’s an active church, but it’s a very big church. In the week, it’s also a very prestigious concert hall as well. It’s a great place to play. We actually filmed/recorded on the last night.
In this particular concert, we did my first solo album from 1971, called One Year. We did that album from track one to track 10 in the second half. It’s quite a challenging album to do because there’s a lot of string quartet material on there. It was very successful in this country. It had a big hit on it, written by Denny Lane, actually. I recorded that.
In that instance, it was a 21-string orchestra. No drums, electronic instruments, anything. It’s just strings. I didn’t really think it stood a chance as a single, to be absolutely honest, because it’s so different from what one would expect. It was a big hit here in this country. We got a pretty big and enthusiastic audience for that because they wanted to hear that song and that album. We played it in its entirety in the second half.
Cryptic Rock – Fantastic. Now people can have a chance to see the concert, not only hear it as a live recording.
Colin Blunstone – Absolutely. They will. Especially in America, it might surprise quite a few people because that single wasn’t a hit in America. The album didn’t really make much of an impression at the time. It’s a lot better known now. It’s a little bit like Odessey and Oracle, but on a lower level.
Odessey and Oracle wasn’t particularly well-known when it was released, but it’s pretty well-known now. One year follows behind it. It was my first solo album and is on a lower level, but it’s following behind it.
Cryptic Rock – That is a positive thing. There seems to be a lot of enjoyable activity going on between you and The Zombies now. There is the documentary, your solo release, and more. In fact, The Zombies just re-acquired material. With that comes the re-released Odessey and Oracle on vinyl, as a mono remaster.
Colin Blunstone – Absolutely. It sounds great. They went back to the original tapes. It was originally recorded in mono. It was only after it was recorded that stereo was starting to happen. CBS asked for a stereo mix. How we first heard it when we recorded it was in mono. With this new release, you’ll hear the tracks as we heard them in Abbey Road when we were recording. It sounds great.
Cryptic Rock – That’s great. A lot of people will be excited about that because vinyl is probably the only physical format people purchase nowadays. It seems like that’s the only one that’s really survived in many ways.
Colin Blunstone – I know. It’s interesting, isn’t it? You’re absolutely right. I like vinyl. I like the sound of vinyl. I enjoy reading album notes. It’s a whole different experience. You buy an album, you sit there reading the notes, seeing the credits, and hearing the album for the first time. I really love that.
Cryptic Rock – Of course. It is a connection with the music. There is something almost ritualistic about sitting there, listening to the album, looking at the artwork, listening to the music, and, like you said, reading the liner notes. You read about who produced it and who wrote the songs, and it all gives you a personal connection to the music.
Colin Blunstone – Absolutely. You hear the songs in the order that the artist wanted you to hear the songs as well. Over time, you might find that a track that you weren’t so fond of becomes your favorite. Whereas, if you’re just streaming individual tracks, you never get to hear those other songs. When you’re listening to an album, quite often songs that you weren’t so keen on to start with grow on you after a few listens. You’re introduced to an area of music that perhaps you didn’t think you were going to enjoy.
Cryptic Rock – Right. To your point, it’s a challenge to grab an audience nowadays if you are a new artist, given how short people’s attention spans are. Going back to the ’50s and ’60s, you were given two minutes to have radio airplay. You had to keep a song to two minutes. It is similar to the way people tune out quickly nowadays, so you have to grab them right away. It’s tough.
Colin Blunstone – Absolutely. I completely agree with you. I often say this in a very light-hearted way. I didn’t really understand the business when I came into it. Now it’s changed so much, I don’t really understand it either now. Personally, nothing’s changed. I didn’t understand it then, and I don’t understand it now. People talk to me about aspects of the business now. I’ve got no idea what they’re talking about.
I love to write songs. I love to perform. That hasn’t changed. That’s exactly the same. I concentrate on the bits that I understand.
Cryptic Rock – That is probably the best way to do it because it is very complex and has changed so much. If you look at a young artist, how in the world can you make a living? Not even to become wealthy, but how are they supposed to make a living as a musician? They have to tour nowadays constantly. There’s no other way to do it.
Colin Blunstone – I know. I would use the word ‘how ‘- ‘how are they going to survive?’ I think people have the wrong idea about being a musician. Financially, it’s really tough. To survive is really difficult. I must admit, I’m relieved I’m not coming into the business now. It’s much tougher now than it was. My heart goes out to all these youngsters who are coming into the business now. I wish them the very best of luck.
Cryptic Rock – It goes back to your story, and how the music will eventually find a way. It is easy to get lost in the shuffle nowadays, but hopefully, whoever is putting out beautiful music will ultimately find their audience.
Colin Blunstone – I hope so. To some extent, it is true, yeah. To be an artist, you have to be a fairly sensitive soul to write music and perform. You have to have some kind of sensitivity. I’ve talked about this before. On the other side of it, you have to be a bit tough to survive as well. It’s a funny and very challenging combination to survive.
Cryptic Rock – You speak about being tough and being sensitive at the same time. Watching the documentary and your interviews, you come across as a very soft-spoken person who does not get agitated easily. The tricky part is internalizing what comes at you and staying mentally strong.
Colin Blunstone – Absolutely. You have to internalize the things that come at you, the disappointments, and whatever. It can be ridicule, it can be all sorts of things. You just have to dust yourself down, get up, go out there, and do it again. That’s when you have to be tough. You don’t have to shout, beat your chest, or anything. It’s just keeping going, being energized, and enthusiastic.
You can’t do it if you’ve been beaten into being indifferent about it all. You’ve got to be enthusiastic, energized, get out there, and give a wonderful performance. Maybe earlier in that day, someone was trying to be extremely negative and aggressive with you in the business. That’s the toughness that you have to have to be able to perform when things are not going as well as you hoped they would.
Cryptic Rock – That’s a lesson for life, too.
Colin Blunstone – It is. You’re quite right. The music business is a small microorganism, or whatever the expression is, of life. It’s just a small part of life, really. I agree with you.
Cryptic Rock – Yes, it is a small part of life for sure. In 2026, you will also have some shows in the UK.
Colin Blunstone – Yeah. It’s actually the whole of the month of May, we’re going to be playing all over the UK, right up into Scotland, and down into the West Country in the UK. That’s going to be fun. I’ve got a really good solo band, very good players, and lovely people.
It’s always important to have really good people in a band because it can get quite pressured traveling long distances, getting on stage, putting on a show, and then doing the same thing again the next day and the next day. So they’re really good people, and I’m looking forward to that.
Cryptic Rock – That sounds like it will be a great time. Hopefully, you could eventually bring that over, even if it is in a smaller capacity, to the United States.
Colin Blunstone – Yeah. I have done small tours in the States before, but not with this particular band. I’d love to do it again.
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